JAVNE SLUŽBE I JAVNI MENADŽMENT
889
Provision of Public Services in European
Countries: From Public/Municipal to
Private and Reverse?
Hellmut Wollmann*
The institutional development, which the provision of social and public services has undergone since its early beginnings in the 19th century, is analysed. At the beginning,
certain social services and public utilities were provided by
municipalities and municipally owned enterprises, forming
local welfare state. The national welfare state was the most
developed in the 1960s. Since the 1980s, these services are
under the impact of neo-liberal policy, the New Public Management concepts, and the European Union market liberalization policy. European Union law has developed its
own legal definition of public services and labelled them as
services of general economic interest. The development in
five countries is analysed: United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Norway. Cross-country institutional commonalities and variance, as well as the factors that have
impinged upon such country-specific trajectories are iden*
Emeritus Professor Hellmut Wollmann, Humbold University Berlin, Germany (profesor emeritus Sveučilišta Humbold u Berlinu, Njemačka, e-mail: hellmut.wollmann@rz.huberlin.de)
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
UDK
35.076(4)
351.01(4)
Izvorni znanstveni rad / original scientific paper
Primljeno / received: 4. 8. 2011.
Prihvaćeno / accepted: 15. 11. 2011.
890
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
tified. The article, theoretically based on neo-institutional
theory, focuses on energy provision. The main conclusion
is that public utilities sectors in analysed countries show
significant signs of re-municipalisation.
Key words: public services, services of general interest, institutional development, energy provision, local authorities,
municipal enterprises
1. Introduction
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
1.1 Guiding question. The paper1 aims at discussing the institutional development that the provision of social and public services underwent since
its early beginnings in the 19th century, the advances of the national welfare state climaxing in the 1960s, and the institutional changes service
provision has experienced since the 1980s under the impact of internationally prevalent neo-liberal policy and New Public Management concepts
as well as the European Union market liberalization policy. By analysing
the different phases of this development, the paper intends to identify
cross-country institutional commonalities and variance and the factors
that have impinged upon such convergent or divergent country-specific
trajectories.
1.2 Definition of social and public services. In defining the policy areas under
discussion, social services are services for people and families. They include
childcare (Hill et al., 2010), long-term care for the elderly, frail and disabled persons (Bönker et al., 2010) as well as health services (Grunow et
1
The article is indebted to the work of, and cooperation with, an international research group which, consisting of scholars from Germany, France, Italy, the U.K. and Norway, was convened by Gérard Marcou and the author and met in a series of three research
conferences at Villa Vigoni, Italy between 2007 and 2009. The articles that emerged from
this research project have been published in Wollmann and Marcou, eds., 2010a. See also
the articles referred to and quoted in the following contribution, including the summarizing piece by Wollmann and Marcou, 2010c. The article is to a certain extent based on the
revised version of a discussion paper that was originally presented at an international workshop organized, inter alia, by IPSA RC 32, Croatian Political Science Association and the
Institute of Public Administration, Zagreb and held in Dubrovnik on June 10–11, 2011. This
revised version was presented to a panel at the 2011 conference of the Association Française
de Science Politique held in Strasbourg on September 1–2, 2011.
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
891
al., 2010). Out of these services, long-term care will be addressed in the
following.
As to (economic) public services, the terminology and substantive meaning differ from country to country (Wollmann and Marcou, 2010b: 1
ff.). The term public utilities is commonly used in Anglo-Saxon countries,
in the U.K. and the U.S.A., and is focused on the industrial dimension of
services. This notion is similarly employed in other European countries,
for example, in Italy (servizi pubblici or servizi di pubblica utilità) and in
France (services publics industriels et commerciaux). In Germany, the expression Daseinsvorsorge (that can be translated as provision for existence)
has gained wide currency. With the process of European integration, EU
law has developed its own legal definition and labelled them as services
of general economic interest. The public services essentially comprise water
supply (Citroni, 2010), waste management (Dreyfus et al., 2010) as well
as energy provision (Wollmann et al., 2010).
1.3 Country selection. In line with the referred to international research
group, the selection of countries under discussion in this article is led by
the plausible assumption that the U.K., France and Germany are exemplary types of European government systems and of their respective public service traditions showing commonalities and differences that allow
insightful comparative analyses. The Italian case looks analytically attractive, having so far been often neglected in pertinent comparative studies.
Lastly, Norway has been included as its energy sector makes almost for a
deviant case.
1.4 Institutional and historical approach. While focusing on institutional developments, the paper aims at detecting developmental patterns and tracks
over time by pursuing an explicitly historical approach. Hence, several historical phases and stages will be briefly sketched in order to identify continuities, discontinuities, and the factors impinging on them.
1.5 Conceptual framework. In analysing and explaining the institutional development of public service delivery (as, methodologically speaking, a dependent variable), the paper draws on the neo-institutionalist debate (see
Peters, 1995, for an overview) in which it is hypothetically assumed that
institutional developments are influenced particularly by three factors.
– First, by historical institutional givens (traditions, legacies etc.) as
highlighted by the historical variant of institutionalism (Thoenig,
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
The article focuses on energy provision.
892
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
2003). Historically entrenched institutions and legacies may define the further course of institution building and institutional choice in what has been called path-dependence (see Pierson, 2000,
with references).
– Second, by actors, their constellations and coalitions, political goals and calculations, will and skill as emphasized by rational actor
or actor centred institutionalism (Scharpf, 1997, 2000).
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
– Third, by (political, economic etc.) ideas, frames (Rein and Schon, 1991), concepts, beliefs that underlie, inspire and shape relevant decision-making and decision-making arenas on institution
building and institutional choice. In the concept of discursive institutionalism (as introduced by V. Schmidt, 2002) the discussion
of ideas, frames, and beliefs is captured under the term discourse
which is understood as breaking and providing the argumentative
and legitimizing ground for the pertinent decisions. Such discourses may take place in national, local but also international arenas.
They may be carried on and promoted by discourse coalitions
(see Wittrock et al., 1991: 28 ff.; Singer, 1993: 149 ff.) or advocacy coalitions (Sabatier, 1988) whose bearers (Derlien, 2000: 166)
may be made up of politicians, academics, consultants, etc. and
may impinge more or less directly on the decision-making process (Singer, 1993: 157). The discourse arena and process may
be seen as a struggle for discourse dominance, because of which
the dominant opinion may reflect the opinion of the dominants.2
The trans-national as well as intra-national discourse may serve
as a vehicle for policy (or institutional) learning (Rose, 1993; Dolowitz and Marsh, 1996) or institutional mimetism (DiMaggio and
Powell, 1983).3
2. Historical Origins of Public Service Provision
In the 19th century, during the process of industrialization and urbanization, which became rampant first in Britain and then proceeded in Germa-
2
See the German word play: »die herrschende Meinung ist die Meinung der
Herrschenden«.
3
For earlier attempts of the author to make use, in institutionalist analyses, of the
»discourse« concept see Wollmann, 1996; 2002; 2004.
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
893
ny, the prevalent (Manchester liberal) political and economic belief was
that the central government levels could and should largely abstain from
intervening in the socio-economic processes at the local level, including
the provision of infrastructural and technical services. Instead, it was generally assumed that it was up to the local authorities (as well as to the
charities) to provide such (elementary) forms of social services and public
utilities. Inasmuch as private enterprises engaged in early forms of, say,
the provision of public transport and energy, they often went bankrupt so
that, in many cases, the local authorities were called upon to take over.
In sum, an early form of a local welfare state took shape that was identified and derided by contemporary conservatives and liberals as municipal
socialism.
Norway embarked on a path on which, due to the plentiful existence of
waterfalls and geographical separation of the localities by fjords, a multitude of small municipally owned hydro-power stations has become typical
(until this very day) (Baldersheim and Claes, 2007).
France took to a distinctly different course as, probably due to their predominantly small size, municipalities tended, since the end of the 19th
century, to turn the provision of public services, in an early form of outsourcing (gestion déléguée), over to outside (private or public) providers
(Lorrain, 1995; Marcou, 2001).
3. Emergence and Climaxing of the Modern
National Welfare State
Setting in since the beginning of the 20th century, further progressing after
the Second World War and climaxing during the 1960s and early 1970s,
the advancing and advanced (national) welfare state revolved around the
idea of the State taking on and exercising extended public functions and
responsibilities of the State, not least in the field of social and public services. Moreover, it hinged on the belief that public functions were best
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Taking the provision of energy as a case in point (see Wollmann, 2007a;
Wollmann et al., 2010, for details), such municipalisation of energy provision historically occurred in England (McEldowney, 2007). In Germany,
too, reflecting the emerging concept of broad local government responsibilities in urban services, a type of a municipally multi-functional (multiutility) enterprise appeared called Stadtwerke (citywork), which not least
engaged in local energy provision (Wollmann, 2007b).
894
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
carried out and implemented by the public sector and its professional
personnel. This far-reaching expectation and trust in the public sector
centred welfare state was typically rooted in Social Democratic thinking
and beliefs.
Exemplar was Sweden, where since the mid-1930ies, under Social Democratic rule, the Swedish Model evolved in which the central government
level was ascribed comprehensive welfare state responsibilities while the
local authorities were assigned broad operative tasks in what was labelled
a local (welfare) state (den lokala staten; Pierre, 1994).
After 1945, under the incoming (quasi-socialist) Labour Government, Britain became the most pronounced example of the public sector-centred welfare
state, which included the nationalization of energy sector in 1947, of water
supply in 1948 and the creation of the National Health Service in 1958. Typically, the local government level was assigned comprehensive tasks in social
service provision that were carried out almost entirely by local government
personnel proper. Thus, the post 1945 British State was almost the epitome
of a public sector/municipal sector-centred consummate welfare state.
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Post-1945 West Germany, which was governed, nota bene, by a conservative-liberal coalition government, also moved towards an advanced welfare
state profile. Linking up with the traditional concept of multi-functional
local government model, the local authorities further pursued and expanded the delivery of public and social services in the broad spectrum of
Daseinsvorsorge through their own personnel and through their Stadtwerke.
However, there was an important exception – the social services were,
under the subsidiarity principle, largely rendered by non-public non-profit
(so-called welfare) organizations (Bönker et al., 2010).
In post-1945 France, in line with the unitary Napoleonic State tradition,
the (Gaullist) government’s post-war modernization push was distinctly
public sector-centred with the central state and its departmental and local
level field administration playing a crucial role, while the local government
level played an all but marginal part (Wollmann, 2008b: 104 f.; Kuhlmann, 2009: 81 ff.).
Taking again the energy sector as a case in point:
– In Britain, the energy sector was nationalized in 1947.
– In France, in pursuit of the post-war modernization concept of de
Gaulle’s government, the energy sector was nationalized in 1946
ushering in the establishment of EdF and GdF as state-owned
(monopolist) corporations. Only a sprinkling of municipally own
energy enterprises that were left immune from nationalization.
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
895
– Italy followed suit with nationalizing its energy sector in 1962 and
with establishing state-owned (monopolist) ENEL. Only a few
municipal corporations survived nationalization.
– In Germany, the energy market was divided between a number
of large private-law stock companies that held the lion’s share
of the market and municipally owned companies, mostly in the
organizational form of multi-utility »Stadtwerke«.
– Norway’s energy provision continued its path-dependent track of
hinging on a multitude of small municipally owned hydropower
plants.
4. Since the 1980s: Move towards Marketization
and Privatization
For one, the functional scope of (Social Democratic) welfare state was
criticised, under the neo-liberal assumptions, for its alleged excessive size.
Instead, what was advocated was the concept of a lean state that would
retreat from previously taken public tasks and leave these, by way of (material/asset) privatization, to the private sector.
Second, the hitherto prevalent public sector-centred profile in the provision of social and public services was attacked for its operational rigidity
and economic inefficiency. Redress and relief was seen in reducing the
public sector essentially to an enabling function, which, by way of marketization and competition, would involve the private sector in fulfilling
public tasks.
Third, the traditional preponderance of the Weberian administrative model was chastised for its internal hierarchical rigidity and for giving priority
to compliance with legal(ist) provisions over economic efficiency. Instead,
managerialist principles borrowed from the private sector were meant to
be introduced into public administration in order to flexibilise (»let managers manage«) and economise its operations.
The neo-liberal and managerialist discourse received its initial thrust in
the UK, after 1979, under Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative regime,
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Since the 1980s, the model of public sector-centred (Social Democratic) welfare state and service delivery model has been challenged by three
interrelated political and conceptual currents (Wollmann and Marcou,
2010c: 241).
896
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
spread first to the other Anglophone countries and then to other European countries. The »bearers« (Derlien, 2000) and advocates of the new
creed were primarily economists and consultants who began to dominate
the pertinent political and administrative reform hitherto under the sway
of »traditionalist« public administration experts and lawyers (Wollmann,
1996; 2002; 2004). The increasingly internationalized discourse proved a
crucial vehicle and channel of promotion and consolidation of the neoliberal and managerialist beliefs.
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Since the late 1980s, the European Union has increasingly influenced the
national discourse and policy arenas of its member states as it proclaimed
and committed itself to the prime goal of achieving a single (i.e. the EUwide) market for goods, services and capital. Its ensuing market liberalization policy essentially aimed at deregulating and breaking up national,
regional and local (protected) markets (Wollmann and Marcou, 2010b: 2
ff. with references). The EU has pursued its market liberalization strategy
through (primary, i.e. directly binding) EU regulation as well as (and first
of all) through (secondary) directives which the national member states
are held to translate (transpose) into (binding) national legislation. With
regard to public services/utilities (in the EU parlance: services of general
economic interest) this has applied particularly to energy provision (Wollmann, 2007a; Wollmann et al., 2010), water provision (Citroni, 2010) and
waste management (Dreyfus et al., 2010).
The development in the energy sector will be taken as a case in point.
In Britain, where in 1947, under the Labour government, the entire energy
sector had come under state ownership and management, this situation was
dramatically reversed in 1989 by the Conservative government under Margret Thatcher which, in pursuit of its neo-liberal strategy to dismantle the
country’s (in its view oversized) public sector, decided to (asset) privatize
the energy sector by selling it to private companies. At the same time, the
1989 legislation introduced the concept of unbundling, that is, of organisationally separating the three key functions of energy provision, to wit, the generation, grid-based transmission and distribution/supply to consumers. The
rationale and leitmotif of unbundling is to promote price competition in the
energy market by ensuring discrimination-free access to the transmission
grids for producers and suppliers. The Conservative government’s unbundling concept served as a conceptual and institutional lesson for the EU in
its subsequent pertinent policy moves (see McEldowney, 2007, for details).
In Norway, where electricity had traditionally been provided entirely by
the municipal sector, that is, by the multitude of small municipally owned
hydropower plants, major changes in the system occurred in 1990 as well.
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
897
While the hydro powered plants and short-distance transmission grids
continued to be owned and operated by municipalities, a national electricity agency was established as a key market mechanism that was meant
to operate the national grid, to absorb the locally generated electricity,
and to provide (sell) it to the consumers at market-regulated prices (see
Baldersheim and Claes, 2007, for details; Wollmann et al., 2010).
Due to different country-specific starting conditions of the national energy markets (different mix of state, private or municipal energy companies,
different national energy policies and discourses, etc.) the response to
the EU market liberalization drive at the national and local levels was
variegated.
Countries which decided to nationalize their energy sectors after 1945
(France in 1946: EdF, GdF; and Italy in 1962: ENEL) responded by moving towards formal or organizational privatization of their state-owned
energy enterprises (see Grossi et al., 2010, for the distinction between
formal/organisational privatization, which they call corporatization, and
asset/material privatization).
In France, the national discourse on energy policy has been shaped by the
French government’s inclination to pursue national interest-focused (all
but protectionist) industrial weary of international competition. Simultaneously, since electricity generated from nuclear power, which makes up
to 80 per cent of the entire electricity production in France, has made
possible a comparatively low energy price, it is still perceived that there is
little need, even in the public discussion, to have more competition. Nevertheless, in 2004, one of the state-owned corporations – EdF was formally privatized, that is, turned into a private law stock company for which
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
During the 1990s, the political discussion and public discourse about the
need to have more competition on the national energy markets gained
momentum in other EU member countries, too. In the promotion of such
debates, discourses and controversies, the EU played an increasingly important role, particularly by way of issuing directives that EU member
states were held to transpose into their national legislation and instruments. Among these EU initiatives, the Acceleration Directive (2003/54
of June 26th 2003) loomed large and, drawing on the UK and the Norwegian examples, obliged member states to organisationally unbundle the
three key functions of energy provision (generation, transmission and distribution) and to ensure the discrimination-free access to the transmission
grids as a key mechanism of competition. Furthermore, the EU Directive
mandated the member states to establish a national regulatory agency as
a watchdog over the compliance with the competition rules.
898
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
the share of private stockholders was limited to 30 per cent. Beyond the
relatively few existing municipal energy corporations that were exempt
from nationalization in 1946, the creation of new municipal enterprises is
legally not permitted.
In responding to the EU market liberalization policy, in 1992, Italy transformed the state-owned ENEL, by way of formal privatization (corporatization), into a state-owned stock company obliged to sell shares to outside
investors (material privatization). In compliance with the EU directive, an
independent regulatory agency (autorità per l’energía elettrica ed il gas) was
also set up in 1997 to watchdog market competition. The municipal companies (municipalizzate) that were exempt from nationalization in 1962 have
continued to play quite an important role (Prontera and Citroni, 2007).
Germany offers a particularly interesting case for a number of reasons.
For one, in Germany the energy market has been traditionally dominated
by the private sector stock companies since, in stark contrast with the UK,
France and Italy, the nationalization of the energy sector was a far cry
from West Germany’s post-war conservative-liberal federal governments
and their social market economy beliefs.
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
At the same time, being part and parcel of the traditionally strong role
of multi-functional local government in Germany’s intergovernmental
setting, the local authorities continue to play a significant role in the gridbased transmission and distribution, but also, to a lesser degree, in the
generation of energy, particularly in the traditional form of multi-utility
municipal corporations (Stadtwerke). In their operational rationale, the
Stadtwerke are typically expected to provide public services, including
energy, to the local community. While mostly operating in organisational
as well as financial independence, they are expected, in line with the common good mandate of local government, to act in the best interest of
the local citizens and clients. The accepted practice of cross-subsidizing
allows them to cover deficits, incurred in, say, public transport, by the
profits made in other services, say energy. In pursuing these local goals
and commitments, they have come to form somewhat closed local markets, if not local monopolies (Ude, 2006).
On this conceptual and political background, there are evident tensions
and clashes that emerged between the concept and interest of the local
authorities and their »Stadtwerke« to retain their (as it were, protected)
local markets, on the one hand, and the overall aim and commitment of
the EU to achieve the single, EU wide market, not least for public utilities
(services of general economic interest) and to, thus, do away with protected local markets and local monopolies, on the other hand.
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
899
It is small wonder that the municipalities saw a threat to their traditionally
conceived role, function and existence in the EU’s market liberalization
policy, including its unbundling strategy. Consequentially (and at the end
successfully), they urged the federal government to get the EU to agree to
largely exempt the German Stadtwerke from the unbundling rule.
The trend towards marketization and private sector-based delivery of public services could, at that stage, be also observed in water supply (as
another type of grid-based service) and in waste management in other European countries (see Citroni, 2010, for water supply; and Dreyfus et al.,
2010 for waste management). Available evidence points at the significant
effect of EU market liberalization policy as well.
5. Pendulum Swinging Back? »Come Back«
of Public/Municipal Sector Based Service
Provision?
There are empirical indications that in recent years a comeback of public/
municipal sector based provision of public services has been gaining momentum and that a pendulum swing towards a »re-municipalisation« is
under way (see Wollmann and Marcou, 2010c: 256)
In Germany, the energy provision sector offers a striking example of such
»re-municipalisation«.
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
In its first phase, the EU market liberalization policy and its transposition
into the German national legislation had a somewhat paradoxical effect
of accelerating the concentration in the energy market and of strengthening the market dominance of the »Big Four« (E.on, RWE, EnBW,
Vattenfall, the latter being Swedish state-owned energy company). At the
same time, the share and role of the municipal energy companies, primarily of the Stadtwerke, began to shrink. To begin with, they gave way to
the competitive strength of the Big Four by either giving up or by selling
minority shares of their assets (grids, power plants) to them. Then, under
the budgetary squeeze aggravated by the high fiscal costs of the German
Unification, many of the municipalities saw themselves compelled to cash
in on their assets in order to receive short-term liquidity. The decline of
the Stadtwerke was captured in the public debate as »the demise of the
Stadtwerke« (Stadtwerkesterben). For some observers the then dwindling of
the Stadtwerke was interpreted, along with other budgetary plight-related
functional losses, as foreboding the traditional German local government
becoming defunct (Wollmann 2000, 2002, 2003).
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
900
Local authorities have, in growing numbers, begun to buy back pertinent
assets that they previously sold to private investors, to establish new facilities, or to expand the existing ones. In an increasing number of cases,
the municipalities and their Stadtwerke have turned to operate the local
grids themselves, if and when the long-term concession contracts, through which they previously outsourced the operation of the grids to external
providers, expire. Thus, the expiration of such concession contracts proves a crucial lever for the municipalities to reassert themselves in the local
markets.
By establishing cooperative networks, neighbouring municipalities and
counties have gathered operational and financial muscle to form larger
intermunicipal energy corporations in the form of intermunicipal Stadtwerke (see Schäfer, 2008, for the pilot case of the city of Bergkamen;
Verbuecheln, 2009, for an overview of instructive cases). More recently,
the »Big Four« have exhibited a growing readiness and interest to retreat from local transmission grids and to give up their previously acquired
minority shares in individual Stadtwerke (for the much publicized case of
Thüga, a subsidiary of E.on which was (re-)purchased by a consortium of
several Stadtwerke for the amount of €3 billion,4 see also Kuhlmann and
Wollmann, 2011: 166, for more examples).
Which factors have driven this development?
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
First, the rationale and logic of the (asset/material) privatization of the
provision of public services that was proclaimed and propagated in the
neo-liberal and market liberalization discourse has in the meantime been
seriously challenged, if not shattered in the operational and local practice. Whereas it was originally promised and predicted, under the slogan
»private is superior to public«, that private sector-rendered services would
be qualitatively better and economically more efficient than public sector-rendered ones, in the meantime the empirical evidence has plausibly
suggested that often the opposite is true. As soon the private provider has
arrived at dominating the respective market and at squeezing out competition, the quality often tends to deteriorate and the prices and tariffs tend
to go up, while the working conditions (salaries, etc.) of the workforce and
employees tend to worsen. In view of the dissatisfaction and disappointment of local citizens with privatized services, local politicians see the reason to get the provision of services back under their own responsibility.
4
See Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 13, 2009 »Energy rebels on the buying trip«
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
901
Second, the municipalities have become aware that, at least in the medium and long run, it is economically and financially more beneficial for
them to retain and expand their activities in the service provision instead
of abandoning and selling them to private providers for a short-term liquidity gain.
Third, following from the privatization rationale, private sector providers,
which are mostly single function providers, are typically primarily interested in maximising the profit in their respective single function while
ignoring other objectives and possibly externalizing the related costs. By
contrast, through re-municipalisation, the local authorities can regain a
handle to meet the multiple goals that are typical of the traditional multi-functional model. Making profits in the energy sector enlarges their
financial scope to cross-subsidize the services that are structurally deficitgenerating, such as public transport.
Fifth, the energy sector has already shown a significant potential of the
local government level with regard to energy saving and renewal energy
policies (Müschen, 1999). For a long time, the local government level and
their municipal enterprises have stood out in the application of energy
saving techniques, such as power coupling (Bolay, 2009; Praetorius and
Bolay, 2009). In view of the fact that the German federal government has
decided to terminate nuclear power generation by 2022, the role of local
level power generation of the energy saving and renewable power is bound
to gain even further salience.
Sixth, it should be highlighted that in the intergovernmental multi-layer
setting of the EU, national government and local government levels, the
interest constellation has significantly changed with regard to the role of
local government in public service provision. This is particularly true for
the energy sector.
To begin with, both the EU and the national/federal government have
come to re-assess and welcome the local authorities and their municipal
enterprises as competitors vis-à-vis powerful national and international
providers.
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Fourth, whereas the municipalities and their municipal corporations were
at first shocked and discouraged by the appearance of strong outside private sector competitors, they have often learned to build up skills and
competences to cope with the new competitive environment and challenge remarkably fast. The energy sector is a good example of the growing
capacity of municipal enterprises to assert themselves in the competition
with private sector providers.
902
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
Furthermore, the local authorities and their municipal enterprises are perceived and welcomed by both the EU and the national government, as
an ever more important partner and ally in the pursuit of energy saving
and renewal energy generation, particularly under the auspices of environmental protection policies.
In Italy, municipal corporations (muncipalizzate), particularly in big cities,
have recently shown interest and the economic potential to expand their
role on the national energy market, for instance, by continuing to buy
ENEL stocks and by expanding the generation, transmission and supply
of energy (Prontera and Citroni, 2007).
Beyond the energy sector, other public utility sectors show signs of re-municipalisation, which the brevity of this paper limits to be but mentioned
briefly.
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
In the field of water supply, this happens in Germany (Citroni, 2010) as
well as in France. In the latter case the provision of water has historically
been outsourced to outside providers (gestion déléguée) based on long-term
concession contracts, particularly to big international (predominantly
French) water companies. The most conspicuous case of re-municipalisation was the decision of the City of Paris to retake water provision into its
own hands in 2009, after the expiration of the existing long-term concession contracts. In another recent example, the City of Grenoble followed
suit (Kuhlmann and Wollmann, 2011: 167 with references).
Another set of striking examples of re-municipalisation can be found in
the field of waste management (see Verbüchelen, 2009, for an overview;
Dreyfus et al., 2010).
6. Summarizing and Concluding Remarks
It has been argued in the paper that the re-municipalisation of public
services provision in Germany has evoked mounting attention in local
level discourse and practice (see Röber, 2009; Verbücheln, 2009; Libbe
and Hanke, 2011; Kuhlmann and Wollmann, 2011: 165 ff., for overviews
and further references). While the paper has singled out and focused on
the energy provision in Germany, empirically grounded, albeit episodical
rather than systematic, evidence has been offered for the thesis and claim
that a more general trend towards a comeback of the municipal sector
might be seen in the other public utility sectors and in other pertinent
countries.
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
903
At this point, it should be noticed that a general mood and re-orientation
appear to have arisen and consolidated in favour of retaining and possibly
returning the provision of public services to the direct political and operational responsibility of the local authorities.
It seems remarkable and indicative that, explicitly with regard to the services of general economic interest, the EU has recently attenuated its
previous rigor on single market liberalization, which, it should be recalled,
has proven a powerful lever for (asset) privatization in the field of public
services. In the Treaty of Lisbon of December 2009, the EU attenuated
its pressure both on the member states and on their subnational levels. In
the »protocol services of general interest«, the EU explicitly recognizes
»the essential role and the wide discretion of national, regional and local
authorities (sic! H.W.) in providing, commissioning and organizing services of general economic interest as closely as possible to the needs of the
users« as well as »the diversity between various services of general economic interest and the differences in the needs and preferences of users that
may result from different geographical, social or cultural situations«. In
other words, a remarkably wide decision-making scope and discretion has
been conceded to the national member states but also to the individual
local authorities in determining the institutional form of service delivery.
It is worth adding that the comeback of municipal sector-based public
service provision might be interpreted, in more general terms, as a functional and political strengthening of local government within the intergovernmental and multi-layer setting of the national states and of the EU.
Incidentally, this is prone to refute the fear voiced by some that local
government, not least due to their shrinking role in public service provision, has been facing the threat of being phased out (Wollmann 2000;
2002; 2003). It should be highlighted that in the Treaty of Lisbon, for the
first time in EU’s constitutional law, local self-government has been expli-
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
In Germany, this has conspicuously shown in the growing number of binding local referenda in which the (material/asset) privatization of municipal Stadtwerke has been rejected by the local population – in defiance
and revocation of contrary decisions already taken by the elected councils
(Kuhlmann and Wollmann, 2011: 168 ff. with references). The most recent striking example of what is arguably a mounting privatization-adverse popular groundswell in other countries is the national referendum
which was held in Italy on June 14, 2011 and in which the privatization of
the water sector as proposed by the Berlusconi Government was rejected
by an overwhelming majority.
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
904
citly recognized,5 including the subsidiarity principle as a shield against
unwarranted interference from above. 6
Finally, the comeback of public sector/municipal sector-based public service provision should be placed in a more general, even global perspective.
While the disenchantment and sobering experience with neo-liberal and
marketization promises (»better services for less money«) has entered and
shaped the relevant local level discourses on the private sector based service provision and has ushered in a comeback of municipal sector based
provision, it has mirrored and has been embedded in a disillusionment
with the neo-liberal creed which has gained momentum in the international and global space in the face of the world-wide havoc made by the
financial crisis and of the fatal role unfettered market forces have played
in it. It may well be that »9/11«, which called for the state as a guarantor
of security, followed by the quasi melt-down of the financial markets and
the ensuing call for the state to have a bailing out and regulating role, may
harbinger a comeback of the State with a capital S. In this interpretation, the re-municipalisation of service provision would be just a local level
echo.
References
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Baldersheim, Harald, Dag Harald Claes (2007) Comment un marché de l’énergie
a été créé sans que (presque) personne le remarque. La révolution de 1990 de
l’ approvisonnement en électricité en Norvège et l`´evolution du rôle des collectivités locales. In: Annuaire 2007 des Collectivités Locales. Paris: CNRS,
131–143
Bolay, Sebastian (2009) Einführung von Energiemanagement und erneuerbaren Energien. Untersuchung von Erfolgsfaktoren in deutschen Kommuinen.
Diss. Uni Potsdam
5
Article 3a section 2 of the Treaty of Lisbon: »The Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities, inherent in
their fundamental structures, political and constitutional, inclusive of regional and local selfgovernment. It shall respect their essential State functions, including ensuring the territorial
integrity of the State, maintaining law and order and safeguarding national security. In particular, national security remains the sole responsibility of each Member State.«
6
Article 3b section 3 of the Treaty of Lisbon: »Under the principle of subsidiarity,
in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and
insofar as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of
the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.«
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
905
Bönker, Frank, Michael Hill, Anna Marzanati (2010) Towards marketization and
centralization? The changing role of local government in long-term care in
England, France, England and Italy. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard Marcou
(eds.) The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar, 97–120
Citroni, Giulio (2010) Neither state nor market: municipalities, corporations and
municipal corporatization in water services: Germany, France and Italy compared. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard Marcou (eds.) The Provision of Public
Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and Market. Edward
Elgar, 191–216
Derlien, Hans-Ulrich (2000) Actor Constellation, Opportunity Structure and
Concept Feasibi­lity in German and British Public Sector Reforms. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Eckhard Schröter (eds.) Comparing Public Sector Reform in
Britain and Germany. Aldershot: Ashgate, 150–170
DiMaggio, P. J., W. W. Powell (1991) The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organisational fields. In: P. J. DiMaggio, W. W. Powell (eds.) The New Institutionalism in Organisational Analysis.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 63–82
Dreyfus, Magali, Annette Elisabeth Töller, Carlo Iannello, John McEldowney
(2010) Comparative study of a local service: waste management in France,
Germany, Italy and the U.K. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard Marcou (eds.)
The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar, 146–166
Grossi, Giuseppe, Gérard Marcou, Christoph Reichard (2010) Comparative aspects of institutional variants of public service provision. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard Marcou (eds.) The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar, 217–239
Grunow, Dieter, Francesco Longo, Martine Long (2010) Health services: issues
and trends in Italy, France and Germany. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard
Marcou (eds.) The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between State,
Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar, 120–145
Hill, Michael, Martine Long, Anna Marzanati, Frank Bönker (2010) The local
government role in pre-school child care policy in France, Germany, Italy
and the UK. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard Marcou (eds.) The Provision of
Public Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and Market.
Edward Elgar, 75–96
Kuhlmann, Sabine (2009) Politik- und Verwaltungsreform in Kontinentaleuropa.
Baden-Baden: Nomos
Kuhlmann, Sabine, Hellmut Wollmann (2011) Verwaltung in Europa. Studienkurs an der FernUniversität Hagen
Libbe, Jens, Stefanie Hanke (2011) Rekommunalisierung – neue alte Wege der
öffentlichen Daseinsvorsorge. Der Gemeindehaushalt, No. 5: 108–116
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Dolowitz, D., D. Marsh (1996) »Who learns What from Whom?« A Review of the
Policy Transfer Literature. Political Studies, vol. 44: 343–357
906
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
Lorrain, Dominque (1995) Le changement silencieux. In : Dominique Lorrain,
Gerry Stoker (eds.) La privatisation des services urbains en Europe. Paris,
105–125
Marcou, Gérard (2001) De l’idée de service public au service d’intérêt général. In:
Frank Moderne, Gérard Marcou (eds.) L’idée de service public dans les Etats
de l’Union Européenne. Paris: L’Harmattan
McEldowney, John (2007) La fourniture d‘ énergie et l‘ administration locale: une
étude de cas du Royaume-Uni. In: Annuaire 2007 des Collectivités Locales.
Paris: CNRS, 121–131
Müschen, Klaus (1999) Kommunale Energiepolitik. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Roland Roth (eds.) Kommunalpolitik, 2nd ed. Opladen: Leske + Budrich
Peters, Guy B. (1995) Political institutions: old and new. In: Robert Goodin,
Hans-Dieter Klingemann (eds.) A New Handbook of Political Science.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Pierre, Jon (1994) Den lokala staten. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell
Pierson, Paul (2000) Increasing returns. Path dependence and the study of politics. American Political Science Review, vol. 94: 251–267
Praetorius, Barbara, Sebastian Bolay (2009) Implementing energy efficiency innovations: The strategic role of local utilities. Unpublished Ms.
Prontera, Andrea, Giulio Citroni (2007) Energie et administrations locales en
Italie: Dénationalisation, libéralisation et concurrence. In: Annuaire 2007 des
Collectivités Locales. Paris: CNRS, 191–208
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Rein, Martin, Donald Schon (1991) Frame-reflective policy discourse. In: Peter
Wagner, Carol Weiss, Björn Wittrock, Hellmut Wollmann (eds.) Social Science and Modern States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 262–289
Röber, Manfred (2009) Privatisierung oder Rekommunalisierung öffentlicher
Diensteleistungen im Lichte des Public Managements. In: Verwaltung und
Management, 15. Jhg., Heft 5, 227–240
Rose, Richard (1993) Lesson Drawing in Public Policy. New Jersey: Chatham
House
Sabatier, Paul (1988) An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the
Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein. Policy Sciences, vol. 21: 129–168
Schäfer, Roland (2008) Privat vor Staat hat ausgedient. Rekommunalisierung:
Modetrend oder neues Politikphänomen? In: Öffentliche Finanzen, Sonderbeilage, 19. 6. 2008, 3
Scharpf, Fritz W. (1997) Games Real Actors Play. Actor-Centred Institutionalism
in Policy Research. Boulder: Westview Press
Scharpf, Fritz W. (2000) Interaktionsformen. Akteurzentrierter Instititutiona­
lismus in der Politikforschung. Opladen
Schmidt, Vivien A. (2002) Does Discourse Matter in the Politics of Welfare State
Adjustment? Comparative Political Studies 35(2): 168–193
Singer, Otto (1993) Policy Communities und Diskurs-Koalitionen. Experten und
Expertisen in der Wirtschaftspolitik. In: Adrienne Héritier (Hrsg.) PolicyAnalyse. Opladen
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
907
Thoenig, Jean Claude (2003) Institutional Theories and Public Institution: Traditions and Appropriateness. In: B. Guy Peters, Jon Pierre (eds.) Handbook of
Public Administration. London: Sage, 127–137
Ude, Christian (2006) Stadtwerke – Eckpfeiler kommunaler Selbstverwaltung.
Derstädtetag, no. 3: 21–25
Verbücheln, Maic (2009) Rückübertragung operativer Dienstleistungen durch
Kommunen auf Beispiel der Abfallwirtschaft. Difu Papers
Wittrock, Björn, Peter Wagner, Hellmut Wollmann (1991) Social science and the
modern state: policy knowledge and the political institutions in Western Europe and the United States. In: Peter Wagner, Carol Weiss, Björn Wittrock,
Hellmut Wollmann (eds.) Social Science and Modern States. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Wollmann, Hellmut (1996) Verwaltungsmodernisierung. Ausgangsbedingungen,
Reformanläufe und aktuelle Modernisierungsdiskurse. In: Christoph Reichard, Hellmut Wollmann (Hrsg.) Kommunalverwaltung im Modernisierungsschub? Basel usw.: Birkhäuser, 1–46
Wollmann, Hellmut (2000) Die traditionelle deutsche kommunale Selbstverwaltung – ein »Auslaufmodell«? Deutsche Zeitschrift für Kommunalwissenschaften, Heft 1: 42–51
Wollmann, Hellmut (2002b) Will traditional German local government survive in
the face of Europeanizatin and New Public Management reforms? German
Journal of Urban Studies, no. 1 (internet journal: http://www.difu.de/index.
shtml?/publikationen/dfk/en/)
Wollmann, Hellmut (2003) Le modèle traditionnel de la libre administration communale allemande survivra-t-il à la pression de la libéralisation européenne,
au New Public Management et à la crise financière? Annuaire 2003 des Collectivités Locales. Paris: CNRS, 163–184
Wollmann, Hellmut (2004) Verwaltungspolitische Reformdiskurse – zwischen
Lernen und Vergessen, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. In: Thomas Edeling, Werner
Jann, Dieter Wagner (Hrsg.) Wissensmanagement in Politik und Verwaltung.
Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 17–36
Wollmann, Hellmut (2007a) L’engagement des collectivités locales (les communes) dans la fourniture d’ énergie (l’électricité), une perspective internationale. Annuaire 2007 des Collectivités Locales. Paris: CNRS, 111–119
Wollmann, Hellmut (2007b) La fourniture d’énergie, l’administration locale et le
marché – le cas d’Allemagne. Annuaire 2007 des Collectivités Locales. Paris:
CNRS, 161–171
Wollmann, Hellmut (2008b) Comparing Local Government Reforms in England,
Sweden, France and Germany. www.wuestenrot-stiftung.de/download/localgovernment
Wollmann, Hellmut, Harald Balderssheim, Guilio Citroni, Gérard Marcou, John
McEldowney (2010) From public service to commodity: the demunicipaliza-
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Wollmann, Hellmut (2002a) Verwaltungspolitische Reformdiskurse und –verläufe
im internationalen Vergleich. In: Klaus König (ed.) Deutsche Verwaltung an
der Wende zum 21. Jahrhundert. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 489–24
908
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
tion (or remunicipalization?) of energy provision in Germany, Italy, France,
the UK and Norway. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard Marcou (eds.) The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and
Market. Edward Elgar, 168–182
Wollmann, Hellmut, Gérard Marcou (eds.) (2010) The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar
Wollmann, Hellmut, Gérard Marcou (2010b) Introduction. In: Hellmut Wollmann, Gérard Marcou (eds.) The Provision of Public Services in Europe:
Between State, Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar, 1–14
Wollmann, Hellmut, Gérard Marcou (2010c) From public sector-based to privatized service provision. Is the pendulum swinging back? In: Hellmut Wollmann,
Gérard Marcou (eds.) The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between
State, Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar, 168–182
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
909
Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
From Public/Municipal to Private and Reverse?
The paper aims at discussing the institutional development that the provision of
social and public services has undergone since its early beginnings in the 19th
century. At that time, certain social services and public utilities were provided by
municipalities and municipally owned enterprises. This can be labelled as local
welfare state. The national welfare state was the most developed in the 1960s.
Since the 1980s, these services have been under the impact of neo-liberal policy,
the New Public Management concepts, and the European Union market liberalization policy. European Union law has developed its own legal definition
of public services and labelled them as services of general economic interest. The
development in five countries is analysed: United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Italy, and Norway. Cross-country institutional commonalities and variance, as
well as the factors that have impinged upon such country-specific trajectories are
identified. The article, theoretically based on neo-institutional theory, focuses on
energy provision. The main conclusion is that public utilities sectors in analysed
countries show significant signs of re-municipalisation, i.e. strengthening the role
of local authorities and their municipal enterprises in providing services of general economic interest. This is perceived to be a result of the political strengthening of local government within the intergovernmental setting of the national
states and of the EU.
Key words: public services, services of general interest (EU), institutional development, energy provision, local authorities, municipal enterprises
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Summary
910
Hellmut Wollmann: Provision of Public Services in European Countries:
HKJU – CCPA, god. 11. (2011.), br. 4., str. 889–910
OBAVLJANJE JAVNIH SLUŽBI U EUROPSKIM ZEMLJAMA:
OD JAVNOG/LOKALNOG DO PRIVATNOG I NATRAG?
Sažetak
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Analizira se institucionalni razvoj u obavljanju socijalnih i drugih javnih službi
od njihovog početka u 19. stoljeću. U to su vrijeme određene društvene i druge
javne službe obavljale lokalne samouprave i poduzeća u njihovu vlasništvu, pa
se takav institucionalni aranžman može zvati lokalnom državom blagostanja.
Nacionalne države blagostanja bile su najrazvijenije 1960-ih. Od 1980-ih
javne su službe pod utjecajem neoliberalnih politika, koncepta novog javnog
menadžmenta, te politike tržišne liberalizacije Europske unije. Pravo EU je
razvilo svoju definiciju javnih službi i nazvalo ih službama od općeg interesa.
Analizira se razvoj u pet zemalja, Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu, Francuskoj, Njemačkoj, Italiji i Norveškoj. Identificiraju se institucionalne sličnosti i varijante
razvoja javnih službi u njima, kao i faktori koji su utjecali na specifične nacionalne putove razvoja javnih službi. Rad se temelji na neoinstitucionalnoj teoriji,
a usredotočuje na opskrbu energijom. Zaključuje se da sektor javnih službi u
analiziranim zemljama pokazuje značajne znakove ponovne municipalizacije,
tj. jačanja uloge lokalnih vlasti i njihovih komunalnih poduzeća u obavljanju
službi od općeg ekonomskog interesa, što je rezultat političkog jačanja lokalne
samouprave u okviru nacionalnih država i Europske unije.
Ključne riječi: javne službe, službe od općeg interesa (EU), institucionalni razvoj, opskrba energijom, lokalna samouprava, komunalna poduzeća